CANBERRA — The Australian government will introduce new mandatory safeguards for AI developers and establish a regulator to enforce them, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday.

Albanese told reporters in Canberra that the targeted regulator will be established under legislation that will set strong safety and security standards for all frontier AI companies operating in Australia.

He said the standards will require the companies to allow independent evaluation of their AI models, maintain security controls across all stages of development and deployment, and rapidly provide mandatory notification of incidents to the government.

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The regulator would be able to enforce significant penalties for companies that fail to comply with the obligations.

"Our task is to make sure that we shape AI rather than AI shape us," Albanese said.

"AI offers Australia and the world generational opportunities if we seize and shape them properly and that is exactly what we're doing here."

The government also on Tuesday released the recommendations of a rapid review into the arrangements for AI cyber breaches.

The review was commissioned in September after OpenAI reported that a model had in June gained unauthorized access to a data portal linked to Australia's universal healthcare system, Medicare.

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It made 18 recommendations, including that the government consider introducing mandatory AI company reporting of misaligned behavior or cyber incidents and the application of criminal penalties for egregious regulatory non-compliance.

Albanese said that the government has accepted all 18 recommendations.